Hey Oskar — great article and I’m really glad I found your site. I built my body over two years doing 5 lifts. That’s it. Deads, squats, chin ups, bench, and press. My routine might not have been perfect, but I showed up 3x a week consistently and got it done. People’s priorities are all out of whack — not being consistent with a program or diet is going to be 100x more detrimental than not having the right supplement stack or whatever else trivial BS.

One thing I’ve found that really helps me stay motivated is organizing my progress around a specific goal: fat loss, muscle gain, whatever. I write down my lifts each day, and take a picture of myself each week. Sometimes I will look at my pics or #’s and remind myself that I am indeed making progress. Being organized also gives you the raw data you need to tweak and adjust things, or perhaps figure out what is causing you to stall if you’re not happy with your progress.

Your long term progress is very impressive. I’ve added you to my RSS feed list and look forward to hearing what you have to say in the future!

“One thing I’ve found that really helps me stay motivated is organizing my progress around a specific goal: fat loss, muscle gain, whatever. I write down my lifts each day, and take a picture of myself each week. Sometimes I will look at my pics or #’s and remind myself that I am indeed making progress. Being organized also gives you the raw data you need to tweak and adjust things, or perhaps figure out what is causing you to stall if you’re not happy with your progress.”

So I began to note down what I did in the gym everyday;
Pullups
Incline Barbell
Incline pushup

I started out with only 7 pull ups for 2 sets, but I noted everything down. It motivated me to get better. After 3 weeks Im doing 4 sets of 10 Pullups with extra weight in some sets, and some negatives.
Incline Bench from 10 kg on both sides to 17,5 kg on both sides with slow controlled movement
Incline pushups from 15 to 30/ 4sets in just 3 weeks.
Diamond pushups from 15 to 20 / 4 sets in just 3 weeks

Since this way of training and seeing my progress in my phone, everyday Im so pumped to beat that record of the day before. Even though I dont see new muscle yet, I see gains in strenght. I know that the muscle will come and that succes will follow. It’s a mind game that since just recently im winning.

For all people struggling out there read the man diet get back in the zone and be consistent.

It might be that being vegetarian is more common in some countries than in others, I myself only know one vegetarian personally and he was actually more fat than most of my friends. By sheer default there are less because there are less vegetarians than meat eaters. Also in my opinion it would be harder work to get the building blocks needed for muscle growth, obviously that is not to say that it isn’t possible to do, I would just assume it might be a bit harder to do.

Can u tell me a reason that why u havnt seen even a one jacked veg.i think vegetaraians who wanted to be jacked turn to non veg foods because they think meat egg beef steak pork etc is must if u want to build muscle.now let me recall what are the three factors are needed for muscle growth-weight training,enough calories,enough protein..first can be fulfilled by calisthenics,2nd by oats,rice,wheat,brown bread,fruits like bananas etc.now comes 3rd factor that is protein.about 75g of protein is required everyday which can be fulfilled by eating peanut,cheese,soybean and whey protein shakes…..then whats the reason why there are very less jacked vegetarians

Just so you know, the way you talk really comes across as abrasive and slightly rude. Oskar never said that it was impossible for a vegetarian to get jacked. The reason he does not know any is because he doesn’t know any.

I personally never tried being a vegetarian, and I don’t know a single jacked vegetarian in real life. The only jacked vegetarian I know of is Frank Medrano. Look him up, and check out his diet. That will be more helpful for you.

I’m very very consistent , yet i have almost no progress to show for it. i do all my workouts from home , i can end up super sore , eat plenty, and rest enough, but no matter how hard i push myself, i just gain layers of fat all over my body and really bad lower back fat . aka “love handles” .. its getting so hard to stay motivated, in all honesty it feels when I started pushing harder , I saw the opposite effects , my muscles shrunk a bit and I gained more fat , maybe im over thinking it , or maybe im not getting enough calories, and thats the crappiest part. i dont know if im doing things right . and when i ask people for help online , most people tend not to care and dont answer… this fitness thing is not for me i guess.

No I haven’t , is it expensive where you live ? I’m sure my hormones are all out of whack due to my life style and girlfriend . But I’m fairly active all through out the week . At the very very least ill exercise 3 days a week. Mostly its.around 4-5

How long have you been working out? If you are just starting out and are in the beginning stages you aren’t going to see much progress in the mirror. There should be ‘some’ changes, but probably not as much as you expected.

Think of a dry sponge that will expand when you add water to it. The sponge needs to fill out before it actually expands when you add water. When you have close to zero muscle mass and are just starting out, your muscles are like that sponge. You need to fill out that tissue with muscle mass before it will expand to become aesthetically pleasing.

Couldn’t have said this better. My biggest changes came later in my training when I already had a solid base of muscle. Once I added just a tiny bit of muscle on that solid base, my physique started taking off.

to answer your question about how long ive worked out, its been about a year . but I spend a huge part of that time doimg random things, like mixing programs, doing lots of cardio , eating way too little. after I realized how skinny I got I begam eating more and following a lifting program, ive only been lifting for a few months now, but for a while I got scared lifting may have made me loose muscle even further because of how my clothes was fitting differently and how my body shape was changing. I may have just over thought it. Ill just focus on doimg things right and see where that takes me .

It’s free where I live. If you’re American, I put a link in the resources page.

Why do you think your hormones are out of what because of your gf?

Also, you mentioned lifestyle. Start changing things for the better. Work on getting better sleep. Eat healthier foods. Get your healthy fats. Exercise often. Do things you enjoy to stay positive. Work on your posture. All those things increase testosterone.

Thanks for the advice guys.Im glad I got replies. for now im going to try and stay as consistent as possible and try and remain positive and happy. my girl tends to stress me out a lot because currently we are in a long distant.relationship at least until next year. She picks a lot of fights with me , im sure that does not help, also I dont go out as much as I used to , I stay in a lot rarely getting sun.. I hope to change that . I will be trying fasting now , I feel I may have progressed a bit since my comment , I hope its not a placebo. I changed my work out plan and started resting and eatng more and I feel positve changes. Thanks guys

So true, sometimes all you need to do is just show up to the gym. Even if it means you have to train at peak hours when its packed because you procrastinated. I’ve never left the gym without a sense of achievement.

“For those people, reading about new training programs is mental masturbation.They spend more time reading about new exercises and changing up their training, than actually putting the work in to make a good training routine work.” Well said and a Great article Oskar! Just a quick question though, do you make your own peanut butter or do you buy them in bulk? Peanut butter has become the main staple in my diet right now since it helps me a lot. I am considering of buying the peanut butter electric machine so i can save money. Thanks Man!